The legislation from Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., titled the Small Business Artificial Intelligence Training and Toolkit Act, would have the Commerce secretary work with the administrator of the SBA on creating AI training resources for small businesses located in rural areas, Tribal communities, or other underserved regions. The training resources would be centered on artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, including quantum technologies, among other topics.

Those trainings would be provided via grants distributed by the SBA, as well as through gifting from the private sector. The Commerce Department would also submit reports to Congress about the state of the program. The legislation requires Commerce to update these trainings, too. 

“Small businesses are the foundation of the U.S. economy, making up 99 percent of all businesses,” Cantwell said in a statement. “They drive economic growth and innovation. It is essential that all American entrepreneurs — especially our small businesses — have access to AI training and reskilling in the 21st-century marketplace. This bill gives small businesses a boost with new tools to thrive as we step into this innovative era.”

The SBA has already taken some steps to encourage businesses to deploy the technology, though the agency’s ability to inventory its AI use cases has also attracted some scrutiny from Congress.

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The document, which focuses on developing a common understanding of and practices to support AI security, comes as the Biden administration seeks to build international consensus on AI safety issues. 

AI researchers continue to debate and study the potential risks of the technology, which include bias and discrimination concerns, privacy and safety vulnerabilities, and more far-reaching fears about so-called general artificial intelligence. In that vein, the strategy points to myriad definitions, metrics, and verification methodologies for AI safety issues. In particular, the document discusses developing ways of detecting synthetic content, model security best practices, and other safeguards.

It also highlights steps that the AI Safety Institute, which is housed within Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology, might help promote and evaluate more advanced models, including red-teaming and A/B testing. Commerce expects the labs of NIST — which is still facing ongoing funding challenges — to conduct much of this work. 

“The strategic vision we released today makes clear how we intend to work to achieve that objective and highlights the importance of cooperation with our allies through a global scientific network on AI safety,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in a statement. “Safety fosters innovation, so it is paramount that we get this right and that we do so in concert with our partners around the world to ensure the rules of the road on AI are written by societies that uphold human rights, safety, and trust.”

The AI Safety Institute is also looking at ways to support the work of AI safety evaluations within the broader community, including through publishing guidelines for developers and deployers and creating evaluation protocols that could be used by, for instance, third-party independent evaluators. Eventually, the institute hopes to create a “community” of evaluators and lead an international network on AI safety. 

The release of the strategy is only the latest step taken by the Commerce Department, which is leading much of the Biden administration’s work on emerging technology. 

Earlier this year, the AI Safety Institute announced the creation of a consortium to help meet goals in the Biden administration’s executive order on the technology. In April, the Commerce Department added five new people to the AI Safety Institute’s executive leadership team.

That same month, Raimondo signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom focused on artificial intelligence. This past Monday, the UK’s technology secretary said its AI Safety Institute would open an outpost in the Bay Area, its first overseas office. 

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The NTIA is interested in studying the risks that could be introduced when model weights for dual-use foundation models are released publicly. Eventually, the agency plans to release a report that could include policy recommendations. Importantly, the announcement comes as agencies continue to enact the Biden administration’s executive order on artificial intelligence, which the president signed last October. Many agencies are on track, while others are continuing to work on their assignments.

“These are some of the most important and consequential AI systems that are going to be developed,” Alan Davidson, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information and NTIA administrator, said during a call with reporters. “Early conversations around AI openness and open foundation models have engendered fear about making the most advanced models widely available without adequate restrictions or safeguards against misuse.” 

The challenge is that while making this kind of AI generally available could accelerate innovation and help small businesses and startups, it could also introduce the risk of misuse. For instance, nefarious actors could remove safeguards built into AI models and deploy the technology in dangerous ways — and without the need for new training data. 

The request for comment, Davidson explained, is meant to study the risks of this approach to AI, look at different licensing and distribution models that could be available, and consider voluntary or mandatory regulatory models. 

Critically, senior administration officials acknowledged that NTIA does not have specific regulatory authority in this area. Officials also would not comment on which federal agencies might have a role in addressing this particular technology, while acknowledging the challenge of addressing dual-use foundation models with open weights based outside the United States. 

“AI is an accelerator — it has the potential to make people’s existing capabilities better, faster, and stronger. In the right hands, it carries incredible opportunity, but in the wrong hands, it can pose a threat to public safety,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement. This is an important piece of the president’s executive order and an early step toward ensuring safety, security, and trust in these systems.” 

In an emailed statement to FedScoop, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president for global affairs, said that the company looks forward “to working with the administration to share what we’ve learned from building AI technologies in an open way over the last decade so that the benefits of AI can continue to be shared by everyone.”

Comments to the NTIA are due within a month of the request’s publication in the Federal Register. 

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Elizabeth Kelly, special assistant to the president for economic policy at the NEC, will serve as the inaugural director of the USAISI, established under the NIST umbrella by President Joe Biden’s AI executive order. 

Kelly, who with the NEC helps guide the Biden administration’s financial regulation and technology policy, including AI, will be charged with “providing executive leadership, management, and oversight of the AI Safety Institute and coordinating with other AI policy and technical initiatives throughout the Department, NIST, and across the government,” per a Commerce Department press release.

Kelly was described in the release as a “driving force” behind Biden’s AI EO, taking the lead on domestic efforts to spur competition, protect privacy and back workers and consumers. 

The AI Safety Institute’s “ambitious mandate to develop guidelines, evaluate models, and pursue fundamental research will be vital to addressing the risks and seizing the opportunities of AI,” Kelly said in a statement. “I am thrilled to work with the talented NIST team and the broader AI community to advance our scientific understanding and foster AI safety. While our first priority will be executing the tasks assigned to NIST in President Biden’s executive order, I look forward to building the Institute as a long-term asset for the country and the world.”

The USAISI’s chief technology officer will be Elham Tabassi, NIST’s chief AI adviser. Tabassi led the development of NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework and also served as the associate director for emerging technologies in the agency’s Information Technology Laboratory. 

In her new role as CTO, Tabassi will oversee critical technical programs and “be responsible for shaping efforts at NIST and with the broader AI community to conduct research, develop guidance, and conduct evaluations of AI models including advanced large language models in order to identify and mitigate AI safety risks,” the release stated.

“The USAISI will advance American leadership globally in responsible AI innovations that will make our lives better,” Tabassi said in a statement. “We must have a firm understanding of the technology, its current and emerging capabilities, and limitations. NIST is taking the lead to create the science, practice, and policy of AI safety and trustworthiness. I am thrilled to be part of this remarkable team, leading the effort to develop science-based, and empirically backed guidelines and standards for AI measurement and policy.”

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Testifying before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce, the agency officials touted increased rates of in-person work while also pushing for sustained telework flexibility to ensure continuity of services.

“Regardless of where our employees are located, they are working,” said Oren “Hank” McKnelly, executive counselor at the Social Security Administration. “Telework is not one size fits all.”

While many Democrats on the subcommittee made the case that operating under the specter of a government shutdown is an actual hindrance to agency outputs, several Republicans used their time to question whether telework compromised worker productivity. 

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., zeroed in on increased SSA processing and response times, which McKnelly attributed in part to “historic” attrition levels during the pandemic. 

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., meanwhile, prodded McKnelly on “unsatisfactory” services from “delinquent” SSA employees allowed to “sit on their sofas” and work from home. 

McKnelly responded that application and processing backlogs are due in part to underfunding, and the fact that SSA saw an “increase of over 8 million beneficiaries over the last 10 years. At the same time, we experienced the lowest work staffing levels at the end of FY22,” he said. “That’s a math problem.”

Other Republicans were slightly less bearish on telework among federal employees. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., mused that while remote work “certainly has its place” in the federal government, “as we approach the quantum era, you’re one step away from being replaced by AI.” 

Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., said he “could be convinced” on telework’s benefits but that he wants “to make the case to the American taxpayer. It’s real easy to talk hypothetically and say we’ll be able to spend less money to get people into D.C., but that really doesn’t mean a whole lot unless we can quantify that.”

Jeremy Pelter, deputy assistant secretary for administration at the Commerce Department, pointed to a decrease in transit costs — particularly with regard to subsidized public transportation benefits for Washington-area workers — as one calculable cost-saving measure. And McKnelly noted that on SSA property alone, $60 million has been saved in lease cost avoidance over the past decade, with another $35 million projected over the next four years.

“I believe the hybrid work environment does allow us to optimize space,” he said. “And in certain cases, we can redirect those savings into serving more people.” 

USAID is better equipped to serve its global mission thanks to telework, according to Kathryn Stevens, the agency’s acting chief human capital officer. The international development agency has people working across time zones in 80 countries, she said. 

At the Department of Health and Human Services, meanwhile, the time it takes to hire new staff has decreased by 22 percent over the past year, noted Bob Leavitt, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary of human resources and chief human capital officer. Remote work has also enabled the agency to boost its hiring of military spouses by 39 percent.

“Even if their family moves to another duty station, we are able to sustain and retain that employee,” Leavitt said. “That is one way we are helping save military families and also employing and working with folks across the country where the talent is.” 

Chair Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said that subcommittee staff will send a letter to the four agency representatives in the next few days, asking for additional data and information on telework policies as requested by members. The agencies must respond within 15 days. 

In closing, Sessions said he’s in agreement with ranking member Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., that “the overwhelming view of effectiveness and efficiency should be how we’re looking at what the agencies are trying to do” when it comes to telework.

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The Tech Hubs program, which was enacted as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and received $500 million in funding at the end of last year, is an economic development initiative that seeks to build and support new innovation centers and research and development capacity across the U.S.

The designated Tech Hubs include facilities focused on safe and effective autonomous systems initiatives in Montana and Oklahoma; quantum computing projects in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin; semiconductor manufacturing in Texas, Oregon, Vermont and New York; and energy transition initiatives in Louisiana, Idaho, Wyoming and Florida.

These hubs can now apply to receive between $40 million and $70 million each under the program’s $500 million available funding.

“The U.S. will lead the world again in innovation across the board,” Biden said at a White House event announcing the decision.

The new initiative is intended to spread the benefits of the tech sector growth in terms of high-quality jobs and opportunities beyond traditional hubs such as Austin, Boston, New York and San Francisco.

“Those tech ecosystems are concentrated in just a few places around the country,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “They don’t reflect the full potential of our country … They don’t corner the market on great ideas.”

The Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is in charge of the Tech Hubs program and has been given new authority to designate the hubs and award funding for the initiative’s strategy development and implementation.

According to Commerce, it will do this by providing funding to regions where it deems that investment can help to spur a self-sustaining, globally competitive technology industry over the next 10 years.

“The phase 1 designees and grant recipients reflect the diverse technological industries growing here at home and are symbols of American innovation and opportunity,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves in a statement regarding the announcement. “The Tech Hubs program will provide them tools and resources to drive economic growth across the nation, which Americans will feel for generations to come.”

Each region applying for the funding will be required to have a partnership that includes one or more companies, a state development agency, worker training programs, a university and state and local government leaders. 

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The AI Research, Innovation and Accountability Act of 2023, which was first reported in July, has been changed and updated significantly since then, with a new emphasis on the following: online content authenticity, the study of AI usage in government, government standards for detecting AI generated media, generative AI transparency and enforcement of the bill through monetary penalties and outright bans on violating AI systems and companies.

The bill would require the creation of a 15-person, multifaceted AI Certification Advisory Committee within the Commerce Department to help propose testing, evaluation, validation and verification (TEVV) standards to be used for the certification of critical-impact AI systems. Companies developing or deploying AI systems would then ultimately be responsible for using such standards to assess their impact and self-certify their safety to the Commerce Department.

The Commerce Department would be tasked with enforcing the legislation, either via civil action against noncompliant or violating AI companies in the form of hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties or bans on violating critical-impact AI systems from being deployed altogether.

“I can confirm that Sen. Thune is working on a light-touch AI bill that would help set some basic rules of the road that both protects consumers and entrepreneurs (doesn’t want to squelch positive innovation in this space),” a Senate source familiar with the bill told FedScoop.

“He’s continuing to have discussions with his colleagues, but he’s determined to have this be a bipartisan product. He’s interested in a substantive result, not a messaging bill,” the source added.

The Senate staffer said there is no deadline for introducing the bill but it has been a work in progress for several months and Thune’s goal is “to introduce [it] sooner rather than later.”

Axios Pro reported on the previous version of Thune’s bill in July.

Per a different Senate source and an industry executive familiar with the matter, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is the lead Democrat working with Thune on the legislation, which is expected to garner more bipartisan support before being formally introduced. Klobuchar declined to comment for this story.

The legislation would affect any AI system found on public-facing websites or applications available to consumers in the U.S., with some exemptions, such as for nonprofit AI research or platforms that don’t employ more than 500 people or collect personal data of more than 1 million people per year.

The bill defines critical-impact AI systems as those that are deployed for non-defense purposes and intended to be used to make decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on the following: biometric personal data collection, the management and operation of critical infrastructure as defined by the PATRIOT Act, the criminal justice system as defined by the Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 or any AI system that poses a significant risk to rights afforded under the U.S. Constitution or safety.

The bill would require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology to tackle AI-generated misinformation and disinformation by carrying out research to facilitate the development and standardization of authenticity and provenance information for content generated by human users and AI systems.

The legislation would also amend the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Act to require the agency to find best practices for detecting outputs generated by AI systems, including content such as text, audio, images and videos, as well as to find methods to detect AI content and safeguards to mitigate potentially adversarial or compromising AI output.

Within a year of the enactment of the bill, it would require the Comptroller General to study the statutory, regulatory and other policy barriers that prevent the adoption of AI systems by the federal government, as well as the use of AI systems to improve the functionality of the government, and submit this study to relevant committees in the House of Representatives.

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The updates, which are required annually, come amid increased attention on the quality of these inventories and serve as a reminder that the U.S. government is deploying artificial intelligence in myriad ways.

One new use case involves a natural language processing-powered data analytics program attributed to the First Responder Network Authority, an independent agency within Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that focuses on public safety communications tech. The National Institute of Standards and Technology also disclosed a new “Science Data Portal” that takes advantage of “natural language processing and frequency analysis of the corpus of public metadata.”

Other new use cases revealed in the inventory are housed within the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a Commerce subagency that produces critical economic statistics.

The new inventory also includes new unique identifiers for each AI use, which was required in updated 2023 guidance issued by the CIO Council. The updated inventory, however, doesn’t include information required under that guidance, including the stage of production for each use case, whether it was contracted, or if it’s consistent with the executive order.

FedScoop reached out to Commerce for comment but did not hear back before publication.

Though the new version of the inventory is available on the Commerce website, the older version of the inventory is still included on a list of inventories on the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office’s website.

The total number of use cases doesn’t seem to have changed significantly, though new subagencies are now in the new inventory.

Notably, NIST is listed separately on the AI.gov website, and, on its website, NIST notes that it has no operational use cases under the scope of the directive. That website also notes that in fiscal 2023, which ends Sept. 30, NIST planned to “re-evaluate to identify, review, and assess any AI deployed and operating in support of the agency mission to ensure consistency with this order.”

Several use cases, including a chatbot pilot for the International Trade Administration and several tools used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, were in an earlier version of the inventory, but do not appear in the new one.

Experts have expressed concern about complete compliance with Executive Order 13960, which aimed to facilitate a better understanding of AI systems that federal agencies expect to use, as well as AI technology that they’ve already put in place.

A major research endeavor at Stanford’s RegLab focused on the country’s national artificial intelligence strategy previously flagged issues with federal agencies’ approach to their inaugural AI inventories. The CIO Council has previously acknowledged “issues with reporting,” FedScoop reported last month.

Madison Alder contributed reporting.

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An updated version of NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 incorporates recently submitted industry feedback and expands the document’s scope to provide guidance for organizations of all sizes, instead of focusing primarily on guidance for critical infrastructure.

The cybersecurity framework — along with NIST’s Risk Management Framework — is used by federal agencies to plan for and mitigate cybersecurity risks. The latest draft comes as the Biden administration ramps up its focus on addressing cyber-supply chain risk, including through the use of attestation forms and software bills of material.

In addition to expanding its scope, the latest draft has added a sixth function — govern — in addition to the document’s five existing functions: identify, protect, detect, respond and recover. It also provides additional specific guidance on how small firms should best implement the framework.

In January, NIST teased forthcoming updates to the framework and published a concept paper intended to spur feedback from industry.

The Commerce Department bureau will hold a workshop in the fall to discuss the draft and accept public comment until Nov. 4, although it does not intend to issue another draft version of the framework.

Commenting on the updated document, the framework’s lead developer Cherilyn Pascoe said: “With this update, we are trying to reflect current usage of the Cybersecurity Framework, and to anticipate future usage as well.”

“The CSF was developed for critical infrastructure like the banking and energy industries, but it has proved useful everywhere from schools and small businesses to local and foreign governments. We want to make sure that it is a tool that’s useful to all sectors, not just those designated as critical,” she added.

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In letters to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., are seeking further details about the breaches — in which nation-state hackers from China gained access to email accounts at the agencies by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft’s cloud services — amid concerns that they demonstrate a new level of sophistication from U.S. adversaries working to target the country with cyberattacks.

The lawmakers have requested the new information from federal officials by Aug. 9.

The lawmakers wrote: “We are also concerned that these attacks on federal agencies, which include at least the Department of Commerce and the Department of State, reflect a new level of skill and sophistication from China’s hackers.”

They added: “ To help the Subcommittees understand the discovery of the intrusion, impact of the intrusion at the Department, how the Department responded, and what the Department is doing to ensure the continued security of its email and overall information systems, we request a staff briefing as soon as possible but no later than August 9, 2023.”

The systems of at least the State Department and the Department of Commerce were compromised as part of a hacking campaign led by China, details of which were first reported last month by CNN.

The attack is understood to have resulted in the breach of email accounts of at least two-dozen organizations and was first discovered by the State Department, which subsequently reported the incident to Microsoft.

In a blog post last month, the software giant said that Chinese hackers had stolen one of its digital keys and used a “validation error in Microsoft code” to carry out a cyberespionage campaign.

Biden administration officials, security researchers and members of Congress have questioned the company’s commitment to security in the aftermath of the hack and why Microsoft is upselling customers for core security features.

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